Abstract
The concept of panopticism has given traction to an understanding of technology as an agent for control of the masses both collectively and as individuals. The authors argue this conceptualization fails to capture a critical new aspect of technological advances. In particular, the individual’s control over her environment has become the driving force in information technology. The Internet allows the individual to control virtually all content received or delivered. Through these technology venues, the individual also now has the capacity to communicate with the masses at will. The individual is now an operative in the surveillance society so political and social elites are at risk of disclosure of aberrant behavior through instantaneous disclosure by any random witness. Accordingly, technology has created an evolution in societal power relationships. The authors construe this as “Ego-Panopticism.” The ego-panoptic construct they identify has two related but discrete dimensions. First, the individual has a greater capacity to keep the powerful in check through individual-level surveillance of society. Second, the individual is more capable of constructing the world that exists around her. State and society have an increased susceptibility to control by or influence from the individual while there is also a simultaneous limitation on the ability of state and society to force the individual to conform. Through emerging technology, individuals have partially usurped the surveillance society and redefined the spatialization, coercive discourse, and totality of experience of the panopticon.
